The Farming Engine

We painted this morning in Woodland CA. There is plenty of farmland here and also silos. The grains and rice are big crops. I love this kind of scene with all its verticals and horizontals. It is tempting to want to bone out all of the pipes, walkways and cross bars. I put some of them in but then washed over it all with cobalt blue to pull it together. The early morning had fog and was chilly. It soon warmed up and was clear and sunny.

Down on the Farm

Good weather arrived yesterday so we drove out to this massive sheep farm on the Delta. The weather was beautiful. We got a tour of the place and then I did some very quick sketching and painting. My thought was to get them down, bring them home and compose a masterpiece. Isn't that every artist's plan? How can you pass up painting the farm 'bone yard' with all the rusting equipment? The sheep got far away when I tried sketching them. They were recently sheered and missing their woolly appearance.

The little house that was shadowed and dwarfed by the silo superstructure caught my eye and was my first painting sketch. The hills are different shades of yellow, so I felt closed in by the continuous ribbon of yellow. My 'retired tractor; painting shows an advanced state of corrosion like many of the other equipment residents. Most of these relics were deposited right around the homestead, hence the bone yard. It fascinates me that this always happens despite a huge six miles of land. I guess you get very attached to the stuff. For an artist, it is great subject matter.

Giants Along the Freeway

I've painted these mega silos before but from the highway side. This morning the sun was on the other side so this is the backside, so to speak. The pickup truck and phone pole give an idea of size. The owner was out to talk about his plans for the silos since they are not used for this. He used to have old trucks parked alongside but he moved them to the farm. The train track runs along the side of the buildings and was going by as I painted. The furrows have been placed and it is time to plant.
It was a fine day for plein air painting with the temp about 73 degrees.